Oxidative metabolic changes associated with phagocytosis are essential for the intracellular bacterial killing in neutrophils. We have demonstrated the importance of surface functional groups such as sulfhydryl groups and sialic acid on the stimulation of oxidative metabolism during phagocytosis. The observations are consistant with either 1) superoxide is produced at the level of plasma membrane, or 2) during phagocytosis, the plasma membrane is activated with generation of and intracellular secondary messenger, which in turn stimulates the oxidative metabolism. We propose to extend our investigation on the control mechanism of phagocytosis-associated oxidative metabolism to study: 1) the role of surface functional group (such as surface -SH groups or sialic acid) on phagocytosis and phagocytosis associated oxidative metabolic changes in alveolar macrophages from experimental animals, 2) the effects of cyclic nucleotides (cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP) and agents which will elevate PMN cyclic nucleotides or mimic their effects of the oxidative metabolism in resting PMN and PMN during phagocytosis, and 3) myeloperoxidase activity, phagocytic capacity, phagocytosis associated oxidative metabolism and intracellular bacterial killing of granulocytes from patients with Batten's disease. Batten's disease is characterized by juvenile onset of retinitis pigmentosa, psychomotor degeneration and epilepsy. Recent reports suggest that patients with this disease might have myeloperoxidase deficiency. 4) metabolism and function of PMN from patients with suspected neutrophil dysfunction.